PCCW Global and HENGTONG Group to connect three continents with high speed PEACE cable project

HKT (SEHK:6823) – HONG KONG, October 25, 2018

PCCW Global, the international operating division of HKT, Hong Kong’s premier telecommunications service provider, and Chinese technology and industrial giant, the HENGTONG Group, have signed a cooperation agreement to connect China to Europe and Africa via the Pakistan East Africa Connecting Europe (PEACE) undersea cable project, a new high-speed connection which is planned to go live in early 2020.

When complete, the high-speed PEACE cable system will offer the shortest routes from China to Europe and Africa, interconnecting three of the world’s most populous continents whilst at the same time dramatically reducing latency, delivering a superior connectivity experience which will be ideal for a vast array of commercial and consumer applications.

Traditionally under-served, Africa has the fastest-growing youth population in the world and is a market particularly ripe for investment because of the rapidly growing number of Internet users and increasing demand for connectivity to, and across, Africa.

The backbone of the project will connect Pakistan, Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya and France, providing critical interconnections to key Asia, Europe, and Africa economic corridors, while other routes and connection agreements will stretch to South Africa, with planned landing points en route.

PCCW Global and HENGTONG will cooperate to steer the overall project. Another PEACE collaborator, Huawei Marine, is already engaged with the construction of a primary segment of the 12,000km-long PEACE cable. PCCW Global is the manager of the commercial side of the cooperation and is responsible for all capacity services and landing party arrangements, in addition to bundling capacity on the new submarine cable with existing network products and services.

Innovative new technologies are being deployed in the construction phase of the project which will enable each country's bandwidth allocation to be modified during the lifetime of the cable. Once the cable is live, individual cable stakeholders will have the ability to design the network to their own specifications, without impacting others using the same cable system.

The PEACE cable project also paves the way for PCCW Global and HENGTONG to collaborate on other regional connectivity projects as well as the establishment of smart cities across multiple continents.

Mr. Sameh Sobhy, Vice President, Middle East & North Africa, PCCW Global, said, “We are proud that two such reputable industry leaders – HENGTONG Group and Huawei Marine – have entrusted us and our expertise in cable planning and management to be the commercial channel for the PEACE project.”

Mr. Sun Xiaohua, Vice President, HENGTONG Marine, a subsidiary of HENGTONG Group, said, “We see the PEACE project as a strategic pivot for the HENGTONG Group to grow from our experience as a subsea cable investor and look forward to identifying new investing opportunities in this market in the future. We are extremely proud to have appointed PCCW Global and Huawei Marine as key collaborators in this project and to achieve a more effective approach for the investment. It is the power of this cooperation that is spearheading the deployment and commercialization of better connectivity between Europe, Asia and Africa.”

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About PCCW Global

PCCW Global is the international operating division of HKT, Hong Kong's premier telecommunications service provider, which is majority-owned by PCCW Limited. Covering more than 3,000 cities and 150 countries, the PCCW Global network supports a portfolio of integrated global communications solutions which include Ethernet, IP, fiber and satellite transmission solutions, international voice and VoIPX services, managed network & security services and our expanding “as-a-service” solutions including OTT video and Unified Communications.

PCCW Global is headquartered in Hong Kong, and maintains regional centers in Belgium, China, France, Greece, Japan, Korea, Singapore, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. To learn more about PCCW Global, please visit www.pccwglobal.com

About HKT

HKT (SEHK: 6823) is Hong Kong's premier telecommunications service provider and leading operator in fixed-line, broadband and mobile communication services. It meets the needs of the Hong Kong public and local and international businesses with a wide range of services including local telephony, local data and broadband, international telecommunications, mobile, and other telecommunications businesses such as customer premises equipment sales, outsourcing, consulting, and contact centers.

HKT also provides a range of innovative and smart living services beyond connectivity to make the daily lives of customers more convenient, whether they are at home, in the workplace, or on the go. For more information, please visit www.hkt.com

About HENGTONG Group

HENGTONG Group is a national innovative enterprise group, which services in the field of information and communication, electricity transmission, energy mineral, financial, real estate, trade and investment. With wholly owned and holding 70 companies, including 3 listed companies in Indonesia Stock Exchange, HKEx and Shanghai stock exchange, HENGTON has not only industry bases in 10 provinces and cities in China, and 9 research and development industry bases(located in Brazil, Indonesia, Spain, Portugal, South Africa, India, Germany, Egypt) around the world, but also marketing and technical service companies in more than 30 oversea countries and regions. At the same time, the products are widely used in more than 140 countries and areas. It is also the largest leading enterprises in the field of Chinese optical fiber network construction and operation and maintenance services, top 500 enterprises of China, top 100 Chinese private enterprises, top 3 global fiber optic communications manufacturer. It occupies 15% of the global market of fiber optic network. The revenue of HENGTONG Group reached to 12 billion dollars in 2017, and ranks No.1 in optic communication industry in China.

About PEACE

The Pakistan East Africa Connecting Europe (PEACE) is a privately owned cable system that provides an open system design, flexibility and carrier-neutral cross-connect services for its customers. With the DTS work completed and proceeding activities underway, the project is targeted for completion in the first quarter of 2020.

The system design will adopt the latest 200G and WSS technologies, which will initially provide the capability to transmit over 16 Tbps per fibre pair, servicing growing regional capacity needs.

This network topology will substantially reduce network latency by adopting the shortest direct connectivity route, providing cost-effective capacity in an economically growing region and enhancing route diversity between and among Asia, Africa and Europe.